Skin Improvements

My skin tone and quality has improved leaps and bounds with the summer sun and a change in diet and lifestyle. I eat a lot more fresh salad and greens produced from the garden.

The inner body is feeling better and so I suspect has a role in both physically and psychologically making the outer body feel better.

People who want to lose weight need to do more about their lifestyle than just eat less or take a pill. A long term weight control means understanding what is causing the weight gain and then modifying ones lifestyle accordingly forever.

I feel this is just like eczema. We want a magic cream and a pill to make it all better. However I have learnt that eczema also means making lifestyle modifications in order to get better. More sleep, more water, better diet. However, I still find myself taking an antihistamine a couple of times a month, just before my period, to ensure sleep and a reduction of hives.

NOW I feel now that I can start applying the cortesone cream as the itchy skin is under control. Why apply the cortesone cream? This is to burn off the bad skin and to premote healing before the winter months are upon us. However, I am first considering using exfoliation products to remove the bad skin.

Predominate Causes of Itchiness

Darkness and Light

Having spoken about the effects of the sun, I tried to take vitamin D throughout the rest of winter. Did not find much effect and wonder if like a plant there is an amount of "like" photosynthesis of a version of vitamin D happening within the body that is not the same as the vitamin D tablets taken.

With the warmer temperatures have been sunning body. Spoke to doc about the use of a sun bed during winter and was warmed about skin cancer. Everything needs a balance. She suggested maybe once or twice a week. Perhaps just going away to somewhere warm is the best treatment!

Dust and Animal Hair and Clean Air

Visited a friend in Iqaluit and was itchy for the first 2 days until I swept and dusted her house. Skin settled down and have been sweeping her house everyday as she has a fantastic chocolate labrador. The dog is wonderful, but shedding hair all over the place. Also was very tired after traveling and not sleeping properly for a couple of days. I wonder if this was the other cause of me feeling non-stop itchy for the next 2 days until I took an anti-histamine to control the itch (really hate the anti-histamine). The clean air in Iqaluit has made me sleep really well and so over the next couple of days have been thankfully itching less.

Current Position

Having had some healing time, the eczema slowly creeps back. The skin was nearly healed, having had a long break in a sunny tropical climate. Now back in the UK, I find myself scratching more and more often as I sleep. Grrr!

Currently:

• drinking a teaspoon of tumeric in the morning becos I heard it is a good anti-inflamatory
• eating one 1000mg tablet of Cod Liver Oil for bones and vit D. My theory is that as my skin reacts positively to sunlight, perhaps this is due to the higher manufacture of vitamin D.

Am contemplating having an oatmeal bath combined with sea salt as my cousin is swearing by it. Got to top up on sea salt. Still on my list of "To Dos" is to do a detox. Unfortunately this gets in the way of training as don't want to lose weight. Perhaps I will wait until after the marathon on the 26th April.....hmmmm

The Environmental Itch

I wonder if the chemicals we pollute our air with have caused more people in the Western world to suffer from more ailments. We see an increase in sensitivities such as with eczema and asthma.

With respect to eczema, I notice that either external factors or internal factors can make me itch.

Food

Yesterday I ate a piece of lotus seed cake. The reaction was very quick. The left hand side of me began to niggle and then the itch soon became intense. So intense that if I did not do something about it, I would have gouged out my eye and dug holes into my skin.

Antihistamine time plus 1 litre of water to dilute whatever toxin was trying to come out plus a cold pack on the itchy areas. I also lay down to calm myself and by the time the itch was over, my head was heavy due to the effects of the antihistamine but at least the itch attack was over.

One reader has reminded me about Liver Detox and I think I will need to schedule this in at some point. Presently I have also been having boils appear all over the body. I thought it might have been shingles but they have been appearing quite dispersed throughout which makes me think my liver and kidney functions are not efficiently removing the toxins my body holds from eating junk food throughout the Christmas period.

For me some foods are fast reacting - the body has an almost immediate response to something it does not like, such as the lotus bean cake, or even MSG (monosodium glutamate) or cherries for me. Others release their toxins slowly as the body breaks down the foods into their respective components.

External Factors

In a dusty environment we all have different reactions. Some will complain about the dust but no reaction happens to them, others will find their eyes streaming and sneeze constantly. When I contact with dust, my skin becomes inflamed and hives appear. Scratch it and I risk:

- infecting my skin

- eczema

Sometimes I can do something about it. This is mostly to wash off the offending substance from my skin immediately and of course not scratch. Other times it is difficult to do anything about it.

Have been in a tropical humid climate for 5 weeks. The first two weeks was terrible. I was flaking, my body was adjusting to the climate change and occasionally no choice but to eat an antihistamine.  Now the skin quality has improved so much and much healing has happened to allow the skin to gain back its protective qualities. However being in airconditioned rooms has a drying effect on me and thus the skin feels irritated unless I am constant apply moisturisers.

In the UK, the heating also sucks up the moisture from my skin. The lack of water vapour in both cases causes itchiness unless moisturisers are constantly applied.

In all cases it is important to keep an awareness of how one's body is reacting to external/internal substances and to do something about it immediately.  Leave it and the substance can have a long lasting effect. 

I had a sports massage in January 2008 and the oils that were applied caused me to feel itchy. I had other things to do, so continued my tasks until 4 hours later. I was really itchy. I tried washing the oils off but my body must have absorbed it by then. I suffered from an all over body eczema and am still healing from it now.

The Menstrual Itch

This is an itch that is again created by some type of imbalance within the body. 

I have noticed that about 2-3 days before my period arrives, my body, arms, legs, neck, etc itches constantly. It is like a background noise that is always there. If I dare to scratch any part then the eczema slowly rears its ugly head.  

Once the period starts, the itching subsides.

So what is happening to the body?

I found the image on the right in wikipedia (of course). 

A couple of things stand out to me:

1. The core body temperature rises
   
2. Progesterone levels are increasing and estrogen levels are decreasing before the period.
   
3. On the onset of ones period there is a sudden fall away of progesterone

Again I have found drinking more water when one is itchy has some effect in reducing the itch. The other is being in a nice cold environment. It is no wonder I find myself drawn to the ice and snow! -20 degrees celcius seems so inviting!

As for the progesterone levels,  perhaps I don't have enough of it or it is out of sync! I have read it is suppose to have a calming effect and there is a tendency for one to feel lethargic or depressed. Strangely I have quite an opposite effect leading up to the period. I have a lot of energy and when running, can feel like I can run forever!!! Two nights before my period I have insomnia. On the first day of my period, I want to sleep the whole day.

Without medical measurements of the production of my hormones, it would be difficult to understand how it is affecting the eczematic skin.  However, a rising body temperature will explain why being in the cold is the best thing for reducing the itchiness, as well as drinking water.

The Sleepless Itch

Having identified the "dehydrated itch", let's talk about rashes and itchiness arising from lack of sleep.

I have bouts of insomnia. This has been far more so as I have been taking antihistamines to make me sleep and reduce the itch I feel when in bed.

Right now I have had a 2 week spell of sleep deprivation. Although I am relaxed specific parts of my body take it in turn to feel itchy - body/leg/arm/neck. I can drink lots of water and not much seems to happen. Putting ice on the area will alleviate the symptoms temporarily but the BEST medicine here is sleep.

What Happens to the Body Physiology When it Does not Sleep?
Having looked up this question, it is well documented that within the body sleep deprivation causes:

• A decrease in core body temperature
• A decrease in immune system function as measured by white cell count and activity
• A decrease in the release of growth hormone
• Other hormone imbalances (look up sleep deprivation physiology)
• Enhanced activity on the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This controls reactions to stress and regulates body functions such as digestion, the immune system, mood, sex, or energy usage

So the above therefore will give some indications that sleep deprivation is associated with many chronic diseases/disorders such as weight loss, heart conditions, growth and more.

Sleep and Eczema
So now focus on the bullet point about the enhanced activity of the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and that this decreases the immune system functions.

Sleep becomes an extremely important factor in order for the skin in eczema to repair itself and become more resilient to the rash symptoms. Studies have shown that the ability to heal is thus reduced when we are sleep starved.

It is no wonder that my skin feels so poor. Fortunately, last night I finally had a continuous sleep period of 9 hours and today my skin feels better. It is amazing how one night out of so many sleepless nights can make my body feel so much better.

Pharmcies out there - we need a cream to make our skin feel calm when we don't sleep!

The Dehydration Itch

When hives begin to appear the time can be stressful. And that stress manifests itself to more rash. By the time you regain control over yourself, you have scratched yourself to shreds and eczema begins to take control.

I was running with a friend and for the first 8kms we were fine. I drank lots of water but my friend only drank a sip of water once at 8ks. We headed on and by 15ks she was starting to get a bad case of hives on the arms. She was stressed and she reminded me of me when the rash appears and we just want it to stop.

We stopped at a water point and I got her to down 300ml of water against her wish as it would make her feel bloated. She was looking at her arms worsening and as panic started to set in, so were her neck and face starting to itch. She wanted an antihistamine now! Anxiety normally makes an itch worst and requires a good distraction. I gave her something to hold and got her to drink more water (500ml usually helps me) and then she was to replace the word "itch" with "water" or "ice" if she wanted to tell me how itchy it was. I had hoped using cooling words would take some of the heat of that itch.

I believe my friend's body was telling her she was dehydrated and that she had not recognised it. I normally find that drinking water dilutes whatever toxin is trying to come out of my body and reduces the symptoms of itching. However it is not an immediate effect and can take about 5 minutes.

It was time to talk about other more positive things like:

- What do you like to eat?

- What is your favourite ice cream?

- What is the best adventure you've been on?

I banned her from looking at the hives and feeling the lumps appear. And after a km, the itching subside, but I never asked her about her itch until the end at 25ks if she still needed an antihistamine.

She was proud to say she did not and thankful not to have to knock out her system with it. As those who take strong antihistamines know, it can cause drowsiness and for me a very heavy head.

So in conclusion:

- drink more water when you feel itchy symptoms appear

- distract yourself and never focus on the itch